Mission
Good design is a human right. Woodbury School of Architecture produces graduates who affirm the power of design to improve the built environment and the lives of others by addressing the pressing issues of our time. We transform our students into ethical, articulate, and innovative design professionals prepared to lead in a world of accelerating technological change.
Licensure
The Woodbury University Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) and Master of Architecture (MArch) degree programs are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and prepare students for Architectural Licensure in California. In addition, Woodbury University’s BArch and MArch degree programs meet the educational requirements for Architectural licensure in all 55 U.S. jurisdictions under the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). However, students who wish to practice Architecture in a location outside of California may have additional non-educational requirements, such as exams and internship hours, that individual state licensing boards may require. The California Architects Board is the licensing authority for California. Among the non-educational requirements, a candidate must complete to receive a California license are the Architectural Experience Program (AXP) and the Architect Registration Examination (ARE). Prior to enrollment, prospective students must review the Architecture Professional Licensure webpage to see a full list of the U.S states and jurisdictions in which our programs meet the educational requirements.
Woodbury University will assist applicants and students as they navigate licensure requirements in other states and U.S. jurisdictions. Please contact Admissions at admissions@woodbury.edu or 818-252-5221. Contact information and licensure requirements for the licensing authorities in other jurisdictions can also be found through the NCARB Licensing Requirements Tool.
Work Experience
Before graduation, each student must complete 160 hours of work experience with a licensed architect or allied professional. This is not an internship requirement for credit, and these hours do not need to be fulfilled at only one location or firm. It is recommended that students use these hours to experience several different types of workplaces, projects, and/or positions to gain a better idea of the types of work they might pursue upon graduation. The Career Development Office provides referral services for potential employers and sends out periodic emails with employment opportunities. Students also will find opportunities on the Woodbury job board. It is recommended that students receive verbal confirmation that planned work experiences meet department requirements. Once work experience hours are completed, the student’s immediate supervisor must provide a letter on the firm’s letterhead indicating the student’s responsibilities at the firm, the number of hours worked, and an assessment of how well the student executed the assignments. This letter is to be sent to the department chair. Note: Work experience hours are to be supervised by professionals in the built environment and work must be compensated at a competitive wage, or no less than the applicable minimum wage. Up to 40 hours of required work experience may be volunteer, professional service, or other unpaid work.
Additional Learning Opportunities
Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL)
The School of Architecture is approved by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) to offer an Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL). Participation in IPAL grants students permission to take the Architect Registration Examination (ARE) prior to completion of their professional degree. Bachelor of Architecture students are encouraged to apply in the second year of the degree program. However, any Architecture student may apply for IPAL provided they can demonstrate the ability to meet IPAL requirements. These requirements include completing all 3,740 Architectural Experience Program (AXP) hours and taking all sections of the six-part exam at least once prior to graduation. In order to complete these hours, students will work full-time during summers and for one full year in an architectural office. Between the fourth and fifth years in the BArch program, students will enroll in a co-op course during the fall and spring semesters only. Students must meet the prerequisites for the co-op year: a GPA of 2.5 or higher and completion of two upper-division studios. Students must also be on track to complete their AXP hours by graduation prior to enrolling in the co-op course. Students must work in firms belonging to the IPAL consortium or approved by the Woodbury School of Architecture IPAL committee. Students must start their NCARB record upon beginning work and must report all AXP hours to NCARB according to the AXP guidelines.
Students must remain in good standing academically and financially as determined by the School of Architecture, the Registrar’s Office, and the University Business Office.
Program Learning Outcomes
Design studios form the core of the undergraduate Architecture curriculum. Students gain skills in drawing, model making, material construction, design software, digital fabrication, and critical writing. All graduates of the undergraduate Architecture program are expected to master five program learning outcomes:
- Critical Thinking: The ability to build abstract relationships and understand the impact of ideas based on research and analysis of multiple cultural and theoretical contexts;
- Design: The inventive and reflective conception, development, and production of our environment;
- Building: The technical aspects, systems, and materials and their roles in the implementation of design;
- Representation: The wide range of media used to communicate design ideas, including writing, speaking, drawing, and model making;
- Professionalism: The ability to manage, argue, and act legally, ethically, and critically in society and the environment.
Assessment Process
Formative Assessment Experiences
Studio or Seminar Small Group Critiques—Students present their work to a group, including other students and the instructor, for feedback on research and analysis, development of an idea or belief, process rigor, movement toward clarity of idea or resolution of issue, and the skill and craft with which media are used.
Studio or Seminar Peer Critiques—Students present their work to each other for feedback on the same five points. In addition to developing these points in their own projects, students develop critical thinking and communication skills by providing relevant and cogent responses to other solutions and methods of working.
Studio Individual Desk Critique—Student and instructor meet individually to review progress in the project and to discuss directions for continued development. Students learn to work quickly to test new ideas, manifest concepts in multiple media, and evaluate content of criticism.
Lecture/Seminar Multistep Projects—Many lectures and seminars require iterative processes to develop a final product, whether a written paper, presentation, multimedia analysis, or construction. The iterations provide the instructor with a gauge of student progress and provide students with intermediate feedback that contributes to product development.
Juried Public Project Reviews—Students present their work publicly to their peers, instructor(s), and invited guests—often architects, allied professionals, and other design educators—at the end of a project or semester. The jury’s comments are both summative and formative. They evaluate the work before them for research and analysis, development of idea or belief, rigor and completion, clarity and resolve, and skill and craft, but they also suggest other approaches to the solution or additional work that might be done in any of the five areas noted. The jury’s remarks are intended to influence the student’s future work, not merely as judgment of the current work.
Public Gallery Reviews—Students present their work in a group gallery. Peers, instructors, and invited guests make a passive first pass through the gallery, observing the overall output of the group, then actively engage individual students in conversation about their work and how it contributes contextually to the work on display. Students learn that their design ideas exist in and affect a body of work that has physical, intellectual, aesthetic, social, and historical value.
Third-Year Portfolio—The faculty review student portfolios at the end of the third year to assess whether the work demonstrates the appropriate learning outcomes to proceed to the advanced curriculum. Students who fail the portfolio review are required to meet with the chair or assistant chair for advising and to agree upon necessary improvements to the portfolio or the studios the student must repeat.
Public Studio Reviews—Studio project reviews are always public. This serves two purposes: Asking students to model (visual, verbal, and written) presentations for their own professional development; and it drives the program to set and maintain high standards for student outcomes.
Grand Critique—Each fall, select members of the graduating class publicly present work they have produced at Woodbury School of Architecture. They reflect on the meaning of their education, on larger implications for architectural education and architecture itself, and on their own possible futures. Three students are chosen from among the graduating class by highest overall GPA, faculty choice, and their peers. School of Architecture faculty members and students, in addition to members of Woodbury University’s general faculty and staff and the professional community, are invited to join in the annual celebration and discussion.
Summative Assessment Experiences
Faculty assess individual student learning outcomes in each project and for each course, following grading guidelines established across the University. Each year, key areas for measured assessment of student learning outcomes that involve not only programmatic outcomes, but also core competencies and institutional outcomes, are specified. The five core competencies include oral communication, written communication, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking.
Institutional outcomes include design thinking, civic engagement, transdisciplinarity, and entrepreneurship. The curriculum has two major parts: Core and Advanced, with a capstone at the end of each part designed to demonstrate summative student learning. The portfolio review at the end of the third year measures a student’s developed skills, knowledge, and capacity for advanced architectural design inquiry. It also gives faculty the opportunity to review the efficacy of the core curriculum.
The final two years of the program ask students to make individual choices about the kind of studio and seminar work engaged, and encompass a comprehensive design studio (ARCH 401, Studio Seven), an intensive research project (ARCH 441, Criticism Five: Degree Project Research), culminating in a degree project (ARCH 431, Studio Ten).
Criticism Five: Degree Project Research serves as the capstone to critical thinking, and the Studio Ten is the capstone for demonstrating mastery and integration of program learning outcomes in a single project. Like the third-year portfolio review, both advanced capstone projects are summative measures of student learning, but also allow the faculty to gauge the effectiveness of the advanced curriculum and the extent to which the advanced work integrates and amplifies the core.
In addition to the summative assessment of student learning outcomes at the major milestones, formative assessment occurs within each studio.
As students develop their projects, they receive regular, rigorous, and critical feedback in small groups, larger groups, and via individual desk critiques. Students also learn to provide rigorous and critical feedback to their peers, as well as to their own progress and process
Program Specific Academic Standards
Design Studio Academic Standards
Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or higher for every two consecutive design studios. A student whose two-studio GPA drops below 2.0 must meet with the department chair to determine an appropriate pathway for addressing the low GPA.
Upper-Division Studio Requirements
All students must complete both of the following upper-division studios prior to taking ARCH 431, Studio Ten: ARCH 401, Studio Seven: Comprehensive Design (must be taken in a regular 15-week semester and cannot be taken during the summer term); and ARCH 402, Studio Eight.
Satisfactory Studio Progress Policy
Any student who does not pass a studio with a grade of “C” or better after enrolling in it three times is subject to dismissal from the program.
Repeated Courses
A student may remediate a course for the purpose of improving the grade. However, the student only has one chance to repeat a course in which they have received a passing grade. If a passing grade was not achieved, then a student may repeat the course until they do achieve a passing grade. Financial aid cannot be applied to courses repeated voluntarily.
Prior to Graduation
Students must file an Application for Graduation Petition with the registrar’s office during the spring term prior to the anticipated year of graduation.